Lucas is a 19-year-old university student. Lucas was arrested for standing up for the rights of Palestinians. Lucas is a Jewish American.

The 1st June is an Israeli national holiday known as “Jerusalem day” and celebrates the capture and “reunification” of Jerusalem following the 1967 war.

With Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East, Lucas was allowed to protest peacefully against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, without fear of being harmed. The Israeli police protected him and supported his rights of Freedom of expression, right? Fat chance! Ok, then the American Embassy in Tel-Aviv intervened to protect one of their nationals from being brutally arrested? No? Oh. So Congress has at least acknowledged this infringement of Lucas’ rights and has condemned this sort of action being the “Land of the Free” and all, and opposing any sort of violent action against innocent civilians (cue Libyan comment). No response. Nothing. Nada.

Should we be surprised? The really sad answer is, no. Lucas’ bravery should not be underestimated and credit should be given to him for this. However, the sad reality of it all is that this is nothing new. At the expense of sounding too cynical, we all know that Israeli democracy is monolithic. Do not be deceived into thinking that this smokescreen democracy is anything more representative or repressive than the regimes in the surrounding area of the region.

Freedom of expression is dependent on your opinion. Anything against government line or the status quo will be brutally crushed, as is exemplified with Lucas’ case. Rachel Corrie suffered a horrific death in March 2003, after being crushed by an IDF Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, whilst attempting to act as a human shield in order to protect a Palestinian home from getting demolished. Unfortunately, the stories of Palestinians suffering similar tribulations are unaccounted for and their cries are drowned out by the propaganda of our governments and western media bias. And when it is reported, there are huge swam of media bias against the Palestinian cause. Palestinians are portrayed as militant aggressors, whilst Israeli is portrayed as being comparable to a rational non-aggressive democracy. It is like saying that Jordan with an ‘elected’ parliament is also a ‘democracy’. I am not saying that western style democracies are coherent or are always as consistent in their application of democratic rights as we’d like them to be, but to compare Israel these styles, is a huge misrepresentation and injustice to those suffering under Israeli rule.

So what can we conclude from all of this? For starters, regardless of whether you are Palestinian or Jewish American and you voice your opposition in Israel, you will be silenced. If you are the latter, your government will not help you. And this is not an exaggeration. If you do it outside of Israel and in the west, many will vilify you. Norman Finkelstein, the long-standing Jewish critic of Israel, but also son to a holocaust survivor is a poignant example of the case in point, banned from Israel for 10 years. Yet the voice of these free thinking Jews, fighting for their right to freedom of expression ultimately proves that Zionism and Judaism are not inherently related.

More on Israel:

So this is what Bibi calls self-defense ‘to ensure Israel’s security and survival’???Looks like a (slow) war of conquest to me. (Click on image to enlarge.)

– A Hebrew Israeli radio station, Kol Yisrael, on October 3rd 2001 reported that during an argument in an Israeli cabinet meeting, Shimon Peres warned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that unless he would heed American requests for a cease fire with the Palestinians, he could cause America to turn against Israel. In a fit of anger, Sharon responded to Peres:

“Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”

– U.S. Senator William Fulbright said on CBS’s Face the Nation, that, “Israel controls the U.S. Senate.”

Dr. Alan Sabrosky, former director of studies at the US Army War College says that the military brass now know that Israel “and those traitors within our nation” committed the 911 attack.

……”I have had long conversations over the last two weeks with contacts at the Army War College and the headquarters, Marine Corps and I’ve made it absolutely clear in both cases that it is 100% certain that 9/11 was a Mossad operation.” Period.